Our New Camper

Well, we've gone and done it. We've bought a camper. No more tent camping for us! We are thrilled to have the camper and can sleep up to 10 people in it. There are three queen bed "pop outs" as well as two double beds inside (the couch folds down and then the dining table and seats convert to a bed). It has so meany features and extra's that it would be hard to list them all but my daughter is thrilled with the bathroom...complete with shower and toliet. LOL So it looks like we'll be camping even more in the coming years than we have been doing. The three weeks we were gone in June ended up being very hot for us so we now have A/C and can stay out longer. We also have heat in the camper, so camping in the cooler months is possible too. I just wanted to share our excitment in our new purchase.

Bagpipe and Drum Corp

My daughter is in marching band and they performed in a nearby festival a couple of weeks ago and we had the good fortune of seeing and listening to a bagpipe and drum corp from a city about two hours away. I must say that they were quite enjoyable and I was thrilled to see that they traveled so far away to participate in a small festival. As you can see, they all had kilts on. Even the teens in the marching band enjoyed listening to them.

The Scrapbooking Class

I wanted to post a bit about the scrapbooking class that my daughter, my sister and I took a week ago yesterday. It was the first time we had attended a class like this and we are all three new to scrapbooking. The cost was $10 per person and the "class" was from 10 am to 6 pm and you could stay all day or just for a while. When we arrived, there were grab bags for everyone. Plus lots of tables in the classroom so each person could have their own table to work at. We all brought projects to show so that got us into the hourly drawing or give away of scrapbooking supplies straight off the store shelves. The whole idea of the day was to come and scrapbook and work on your projects without interruptions from the kids, the husband, etc.. But while you were there you could sit in on the demonstrations being given of new techniques and products. We got to practice using rub-on's (and keep the extra's) as well as use spray tint to color chipboard cutouts (and got to keep the ones we "made"). There were also a cricut set up for our use as well as lots of different die cuts, stamps, and other products for our use while we were there. There were also free refreshments. By the way, my daughter won a clear stamp set with the base. I won a set of ribbons and my sister won a set of brads. We ended up taking home more product from the winnings and grab bag than we spent on the class. Our grab bags had flower embellishments in them along with journal cards, tags, small pieces of paper, and much more.
I am really glad I went as I learned a lot from these ladies. There were a lot of great tips and ideas and I actually learned how to make my own scrapbook from start to finish. It's about an 8x8 size and I made the cover, put the pages together, punches the holes to bind it and then ran ribbon through to not only embellish it but hold it all together. I'm very proud of it. The book is titled "Give A Girl A Camera" and features 10 photos that my daughter took of herself in the car (with my digital camera) while I was driving us from one campsite to the next this summer during our big camping vacation in June. I guess when you're really bored, if you have a digital camera and are a 12 year old girl, you can easily amuse yourself. LOL
The next class is in October and this time it will cost $7 each since we attended the first class. If you don't miss a class, then you will continue to pay the $7. If you miss one, you will pay $10 for the next one you go to. I am looking forward to attending the next class and I can't wait to see what all new things we will learn.
I also wanted to share the best tip of the day (in my opinion). We live in a rural area so we all have hunters and fishermen in our family. So rather than putting these pictures in your yearly albums, this lady has one album dedicated to hunting and fishing photos. By using the smaller sized album she has spotlighted each photo. She has also used outdoor themed papers and embellishments so it retains a masculine feel to it. And it's easy for the guys to pull out when they feel like bragging.

My Current Crochet Project is.....

a crayon bag and and amulet bag. I am trying out two free patterns that I found on the internet and I'm liking the way they are turning out. It is unusual that I am working on two projects at once but I am missing a box of crayons at the moment in order to fit them in the crayon bag so I can continue on with the pattern. As for the amulet bag, I only need to piece it together and make the handle. Both of these will also have to have a button sewn on the front. Easy enough to do. But since I'm not feeling well, and haven't for the past month or more, I am very slow with my crochet projects this month. The amulet bag pattern can be found here http://www.geocities.com/pmshc/goldamuletbag.html?20095 . As for the crayon purse pattern, just google it and see what you come up with. I have the pattern printed out but did not get the address on it for some reason or another.

Child's Furry Purses

These are a couple of little furry purses I made. Of course, they are crochet. I held two colors of yarn and one furry yarn together to make this purse. It's quite sturdy. They are smaller in size and just right for a little girl. The colors didn't show up very well, but the one on the left is a mixture of teal, silver and blue and the one on the right is a mixture of hot pink, royal blue and other tidbits of color. I took a pattern that I was using for another item (a paperback tote) and altered it to make the purse. The paperback tote pattern is a free one off the internet. I liked the way the base was made so I just ran from there. These will also be gifts for my nieces. They are all going to get a purse or something from me this year. Can you tell?

Child's Retro Purse

This is another purse that I made. I think it has a very retro feel about it. I used a free pattern I found on the internet and then made a few changes to it...like the fringe. I have found that the adults in the household love this purse where the younger family members think it's weird. LOL My daughter (aged 12) said that if I add beads to the fringe, maybe it will look better. What do you think? It's a gift for one of my nieces.

Child's Purse or Clutter Bag

This is a purse or clutter bag that I made from a free pattern off the internet. It uses an empty, clean, whipped topping tub as the base or bottom of the bag to make it more sturdy. I have made this for my 4 year old niece as I think she'll be able to put her crayons and things like that in it and not have them fall through. The top part of it will collapse down but I put it up for the photo. It was pretty quick and easy to make. The hardest part was punching the holes around the top edge of the container with a hole punch. I'm not as strong as I used to be. LOL

The Ugly Duckling Blanket

This is the Ugly Duckling Blanket I made and posted about earlier in my blog.

It was a basic pattern that I altered by doing stripes instead of making it a solid color. I also added a bit more of the border. And I made it longer than the original pattern called for. I held two different colors of yarn together for each stripe as I was crocheting. I think this has a very homespun look about it and I actually like it when I didn't think that I would.

Once again, a big thanks to the lady that told me about the Ugly Duckling Blanket and gave me the inspiration to do one of my own.....Elizabeth.

My house is full of ...

sick people! UGH! This has been going on for a couple of weeks now and it seems like it's never going to end. It started out with allergies and has gone on to bigger and badder things lately. I just finished a round of medication treating me for pneumonia and the day after I took my last pill, I started feeling even worse and came down with more symptoms. *sigh* I'm feeling worse again today after a couple of days of feeling a bit better. But, until today, only a few people at a time were sick in my household....now they are ALL sick. I should buy stock in the cough drop, tissue, and allergy medicine companies as I would be making some big bucks right now. I hope everyone else is managing to stay well during this allergy time of year.

I'm so excited!!!

I'm going to my first scrapbooking class tomorrow and I signed my daughter and sister up to go as well. I can't wait to learn new techniques and see all the great ideas. I am not a scrapbooker per se, but a person that does altered books. I have started one scrapbook and that was my oldest son's senior year scrapbook last year. I haven't finished it up yet but I've made pretty good headway on it. I will let everyone know how the class goes and what types of new things I learned to do. I can't wait! I'm so excited! LOL

Crochet Corner

Let's see....I've been doing some crocheting whenever I can find a bit of time to think and relax. I've made several cute little purses for my niece Cleo as Christmas gifts (she's 4 and really into carrying a purse). The most unusual one I made started out as a pattern for something else and I ended up altering it a bit and adding fringe and it turned out fabulous. The base pattern I used for it can be found on the Lion Brand website http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/81043AD.html . I also made one that uses an empty whipped topping container as the base for the purse to make it sturdier. It turned out pretty well. Here's the link for the pattern http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/free/bags/f125004_amandasclutterbag.shtml . I made a few changes in it to suit my needs but otherwise I followed the pattern exactly.

My current crochet project is called an "ugly duckling blanket". I cannot take the credit for it as an aquaintance is the one that shared the idea for this. It uses a basic pattern found here http://www.craftbits.com/project/charity-pattern-4-1-2-hour-crochet-afghan . At the other lady's suggestion, the blanket is made using scrap yarn which turns it into an "ugly duckling blanket". What I did differently is that I held two different colors of yarn together when crocheting and I switched off the colors every 6 rows to make it a striped blanket. I have a lot of yarn for which I have either one skein or less per color. So this is really using the yarn up and it's turning out quite interesting. I am also making the blanket longer by using more than the 57 rows that it calls for. I will also add more of a border to the blanket than what the pattern calls for. I started this blanket last night while I was talking to my sister Marie and within a couple of hours, I had it over half done. This will be another Christmas gift and I'm seriously considering making another one as well. Now, these are not big blankets, but small ones...suitable for a young child to use as a cover up while watching TV or something like that.

I have one more project in the works right now. It is for a crayon purse. The pattern came off the internet and I'm sure you could type in the words free crayon purse pattern on google or another search engine like that and find lots of patterns to choose from. This pattern uses very little yarn, so it's another way for me to use up all those odds and ends of yarn that are just lying around looking at me.

I'll let you know when I get these finished and if I can get some pictures loaded on here, I'll post them as well.

The Book Nook

I have finished reading the rest of the books that have been published in the series "The Ranger Apprentice". That means I have read books 2, 3, 4 and 5. I had thought that book 5 was the end of the series but I was wrong. With the way it ends, there is most definitely another book in the making. These books are definitely worth the read for anyone interested in rangers, fighters, wizards, and so on. They are a young adult series that I bought hoping to interest my sons in a bit of reading and I have enjoyed them immensely. This is my second time reading the series and I hope that others will enjoy these books as much as we have. They are a worthwhile addition to my library here at home.